NEC Details VersaPro UltraLite Type VS Netbook

If the Asus ‘seashell’ Eee PC 1008HA is still a bit too big and heavy for you, NEC’s VersaPro UltraLite Type VS might be the netbook you’re looking for. At 29.9mm to 15.8mm it’s a slightly more pronounced ‘wedge’ than the 1008HA, albeit thinner at the pointy end, but at 725g it’s light enough to give Asus a decent kick in the proverbial.

The 10.6in screen features a 1,280 x 768 resolution which further bests most other netbooks while a 64GB SSD, 1GB of RAM and a 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540 CPU aren’t spectacular, but shouldn’t give cause for concern.

Ethernet, three USB ports and an SD card reader are present but a video output is conspicuous in its absence. Battery life is claimed at 4.1 hours with an extended unit also available, doubling that duration.

The snag – and this is a big one – is the price tag of a shocking ¥176,000 (£1153). That’s MacBook Air or Vaio TT money! Japanese buyers will be able to grab a system at a promotional price of ¥99,750 (£654) for a short period after its release, but that deal seems unlikely to extend to the UK – should the system be sold here at all, that is.